Erdogan was speaking at Vienna forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, a UN framework for West-Islam dialogue, according to UN Watch.(J’Post)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Says UN Watch:“Erdogan’s misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmadinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel.” It also strengthens the belief that he is rapidly turning Turkey into a Sharia state, firmly rejecting Kemalist secularism andÂ jailing those who protected it.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity” at a UN forum on Wednesday, the UN Watch said Thursday.Â Erdogan was speaking Wednesday before a Vienna forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, a UN framework for West-Islam dialogue.

UN Watch urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon who was present on the stage yet stayed silent, according to UN Watch, to speak out and condemn the speech. UN Watch also called on Erdogan to apologize.

“We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UN’s 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal,” UN Watch stated.

In its condemnation of Erdogan’s remarks which it called “Ahmedinejad-style pronouncements,” UN Watch stated that the remarks “will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel.”

Israel sent messages to Ankara over the last two weeks that it is interested in creating a more “positive dynamic” in its badly strained relationship with Turkey so the two countries can work together to further common interests, government officials said on Monday.

The messages were sent prior to John Kerry’s maiden trip abroad as US secretary of state, a trip that will take him to nine countries including Turkey. Kerry is scheduled to arrive in Turkey on Friday.

It is widely expected that Kerry will raise the issue of ties with Israel during his talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara.

The US has long been pressing both Ankara and Jerusalem to take steps to improve relations that went into a nosedive following the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident.

GENEVA, February 26, 2013 – UN Watch today called on Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador Susan Rice and EU representatives to condemn the world body’s “revolting and absurd” decision to unanimously re-elect the Assad regime to asenior postÂ on a decolonization committee charged with upholding fundamental human rights in opposing the “subjugation, domination and exploitation” of peoples â€” a propaganda victory now beingÂ trumpetedÂ by Syria’s state-funded SANA news agency.

“It is incomprehensible for the UN to say that Syria has killed at least 70,000 of its own people and to then hand this gift of false legitimacy to the mass murderer Bashar al-Assad,” said Hillel Neuer, director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch.